E 458 
.3 
.B8 
Copy 1 




patriotism |tiljing IPietB. 



BY REV, THOMAS BBAINEED, D, D. 



PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 



JSl sermon, 



PREACHED IN THE 



THIRD PRESBYTEEIAN CHURCH 



PHILADELPHIA, 



ON THE 30th OF APRIL, 1863, 



THE DAY APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES FOB 



ftumiliatiow, laj^tiug mul ^x^tt 



By rev. THOMAS BRAINERD, D. D. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
WILLIAM F. GEDDES, PRINTER, 

1863. 



.3 






Philadelphia, May 1st, 1863. 
Eev. Thomas Braixerd, D. D. 

Eev. and Dear Sir — The undersigned, having heard with much plea- 
sure your patriotic and eloquent discourse, delivered in Pine St. Church 
the 30th ult., on the occasion of the President's proclamation of a National 
day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, respectfully solicit from you the 
privilege of a copy, in order to have the same published and widely dis- 
seminated in this community. 

In the language of a distinguished writer of our Eevolutionary era, 
" These are the times that try men's souls ;" when the feather-bed soldier 
and the sunshine patriot shrink from their country's aid in the hour of 
danger. Believing that it is a religious duty to stand, with every energy 
we can command, by the Government in its struggle with secession and 
treason, we are always happy to hear decided and unequivocal sentiments 
of Christian patriotism in the sermons and prayers of our Pastor. 

We remain yours most truly, 

EoBERT J. Mercer, Wm. Taylor, 

WiLMON Whilldix, Hcgh Stevenson, 

John C. Farr, Wm. F. Geddes, 

F. J. Dreer, - Jas. W. Queen, 

Geo. Young, Morgan G. Pile, 

Samuel Work, Edwin King, 
Wm. M. Fare. 



PI EI' Hi "ST. 

, Philadelphia, May 1st, 1863. 

Messrs. E. J. Mercer, F. J. Dreer. J. C. Farr, 
Wilmon Whilldin, and others. 
Gentlemen — The Sermon to which you refer was written in haste, and 
for the occasion ; but if you think its publication will do good, it is at 
your service. Next to the approbation of God and my own conscience, 
I prize the approbation of true men. From my knowledge of the earnest 
and universal patriotism of my beloved people, I was not surprised, while 
I was gratified, at the high moral tone of your letter. I only regret that 
the Sermon so feebly represents its great object. 

With great respect and affection, 

I remain your pastor and friend, 

THOMAS BEAINEED- 



PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 



" For if tliou altogether boldest thy peace at this time, then shall there 
enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place ; but 
thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed : and who knoweth whe- 
ther thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this ?" 

Esther, iv. 14. 

These words of Mordecai to his adopted daughter 
Esther, the wife of a khig, seem to have a relevance 
to our circumstances to-day. Haman, a proud noble, 
had entered into a foul conspiracy against the lives of 
the Jewish people. His real motive was disappointed 
ambition and personal malice; but like other conspira- 
tors, he so contrived to veil his cruel selfishness, un- 
der a pretence of regard for the public good, that he 
procured from the too credulous and unreflecting king, 
Ahasuerus, a decree that the Jewish nation should be 
destroyed. For this license to murder men, women 
and children, Haman agreed to pay into the treasury 
of the king ten thousand talents of silver. As the 
laws of the empire forbade any one to approach the 
king without invitation, and as Haman so kept the 



6 PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 

king's attention that no invitation was lilvely to l^e 
given, it seemed that the destruction of the Jews was 
certain. 

Bat there was one man whose eyes were open, and 
whose heart was yearning to save his people. This 
was Mordecai. Determined to employ the influence 
of Esther for the salvation of Israel, he contrives, 
through a trusty messenger, to send her the words of 
the text. 

It was a bold and stirring message, such as queens 
seldom hear. He tells her in substance : — 

(1.) That his confidence was unfailing in the ulti- 
mate salvation of his people. Remembering the 
covenant God made with Abraham ; remembering 
the prayers which had been offered for his people 
by the pious dead; remembering the promises of 
Jehovah, and his past deliverance in times of dan- 
ger; remembering the infinite resources of God, he 
doubted not that, if Esther proved unfaithful, " en- 
largement and deliverance would arise to the Jews 
from another place." 

(2.) Mordecai boldly advertises Esther that if, in 
cold selfishness or coward fear, she sought to screen 
her own life and shelter her own interests by aban- 
doning her people in their hour of peril, by such 
separation from duty she would separate herself also 
from Divine protection, and be left to the fate which 
she richly deserved. If she failed to shelter God's 
people, God would fail to shelter her. God would 



PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. < 

allow the first blow to fall on one too selfish to ward 
off the blow from her nation. 

(3.) Mordecai encourages Esther to estimate her 
position and lofty calling. " Who knoweth whether 
thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" 
God may have given thee the noble mission to save 
thy nation. He has invested thee with personal 
beauty ; he has given thee the heart and the hand of 
Ahasuerus ; he has made thy home a palace, and 
seated thee on a throne, not to gratify thy vanity and 
love of splendor ; not for thy safety in the day of thy 
nation's peril, but as an angel of deliverance. Who 
knows but there is a proud destiny reserved for thee, 
to use thy elevation to lift up thy down-trodden 
people ? 

The soul of Esther was worthy of a daughter of 
Abraham and of Mordecai. It rose with danger and 
difficulty. To save the life of her nation, she at once 
determined to go over the letter of a law, over the cus- 
tom of her sex, and to hazard her own life that her 
nation might not die. Her bearing indicated deep 
piety as well as patriotism. 

She returned to Mordecai this answer : "Go, gather 
together all the Jews that are in Sushan, the palace, 
and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink for 
three days and nights : I also and my maidens will fast 
likewise : and so will I go in unto the king, which is 
not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish." 

She would fast three days, with her maidens. This 



8 PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 

was in accordance with the spirit of piety among those 
who feared God. In time of trouble, of deep sorrow, 
we lose our appetite for food ; and in time of high 
health and prosperity, fasting sobers us, and puts the 
soul in a better frame for humiliation and spiritual 
meditation. 

In the law of Moses it is commanded, Lev. xxiii. 27, 
"Ye shall afflict your soul," (i. e.) ye shall humble 
yourselves before God, by inward penitence and out- 
ward abstinence from animal indulgences. Joshua 
and the elders of Israel, under the defeat of their 
armies at Ai, prostrated themselves upon the ground 
before the ark of the Lord, from morning to evening, 
without eating. The Eleven Tribes, invaded by the 
inhabitants of Gilead, fell upon their faces before the 
ark of God, and so remained until evening, fasting. 
At Mizpeli the Israelites, pressed by the Philistines, 
assembled before God and fasted until the evening. 
David fasted in the sickness of his darling child. 
Moses fasted forty days on Mount Horeb. The pro- 
phet Elijah fasted as many days. Jesus began his 
painful ministry by a fast of forty days. Even the 
heathen city of Nineveh held a solemn fast, under the 
fear of God's judgments, denounced by the prophet 
Jonah. The Saviour told his disciples, that when the 
" bridegroom was taken away," when they were in 
trouble, "they should /c^^ in those days." 

Hence the apostles fasted in the ordination of dea- 
cons. Cornelius was fasting and praying when he 



PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 9 

received the angelic visit. It was when the disciples 
ministered to the Lord ?indi fasted, that the Holy Ghost 
said, separate Barnabas and Saul to the work where- 
unto I have called them. The Pilgrim fathers, and 
the patriots of the Revolution, often held days of 
fasting and prayer. A.\\ Christian churches, Papal, 
Episcopal and Puritan, have made provision for days 
of fasting. 

Esther, then, did but conform to the mind of the 
church in all ages, when, in trouble and perilous re- 
sponsibility, she sought the help of God by fasting and 
humiliation. A custom so venerable for antiquity, so 
universal, so divinely approved, of such eminent ex- 
ample and so often blessed, must have its high uses 
and solid reasons. Let us glance at some of these 
reasons. 

(1.) As under high spiritual emotions or deep 
sorrow, appetite fails, may not fasting have been the 
natural result as well as the means of deep religious 
earnestness ? If we push away the pleasures of the 
table when we mourn the loss of a beloved wife, hus- 
band, parent or child, may we not also abstain when 
we mourn for sin, as one mournetli for a first-born ? 

(2.) As the Sabbath was designed to interrupt our 
business and our gains, to give us leisure and dispo- 
sition to cultivate spiritual growth and life, may not 
abstinence from our accustomed table indulgences for 
the sake of our religion, aid our estimate of the value 
of piety ? Religion that costs nothing is ordinarily 



10 PATRIOT I SxM AIDING T I E T Y. 

worth nothing. The martyrs who blecl for Christ, 
loved Him the more. Suffering for a cause is an 
investment of the heart in it ; and as we are called to 
no outward reproach, loss or pain for our religion, we 
may find compensation for such discipline in volun- 
tary fasting, prayer. Christian labor and charity. 
Our Roman Catholic maidens who fast every Friday, 
and anticipate the morning light for their matin 
masses, gain an interest in their Church and a fidelity 
to it which is worthy of imitation by Protestant youth. 

(3.) Resolute and voluntary abstinence from food 
when hungrj^, for the sake of our religion, not only 
gives the world a higher estimate of the value of 
God's service, but it accustoms us to subordinate our 
inclinations to our duty. It comjDels our appetites to 
bow to oin^ consciences, and thus gives us strength to 
resist the temptations of '' the world, the flesh and the 
devd." He that, from a religious motive, can volun- 
tarily deny himself a tempting repast, is preparing 
to rise above the clamor of any appetite, passion or 
evil influence. He that never denied an inclination 
for duty, holds his virtue in the market. 

(4.) By accustoming ourselves to occasional 
voluntary self-denial in our day of prosperity, 
we get a discipline to aid us to bear trouble in 
our adversity. The Koinan soldier, who bore an 
armor of one hundred and fifty pounds' weight on 
parade, in times of peace, developed a power of muscle 
and endurance tliat juade him alike the conqueror of 



PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 11 

the Briton in the cold North, and the Ethioj^ian of the 
burning South. 

The source of the sin of Sodom was said to be 
"fuhiess of bread." High health, pampered appe- 
tites and voluptuous indulgence generate secularitj^, 
worldliness, pride, lust, ambition, boasting, indepen- 
dence of God and contempt of men. Such persons, 
bj occasional flisting, would gain a calmer reflection, 
a better view of their frailty, more sympathy with 
men and more fear of God. 

(5.) Fasting and humbling ourselves in the day 
of our country's sorrow, puts us in sympathy with 
those who are suffering for their country's salvation. 
Esther and her maidens, in the palace of Ahasuerus, 
would not touch the royal dainties while their Jewish 
brethren were in peril of life. The noble but deeply 
injured Uriah, said to David : " The Ark, and Israel, 
and Judah, abide in tents ; and my lord Joab and the 
servants of my lord are encamped in the opien fields ; 
shall I then go into mine house to eat and to drink ? 
As thou livest, and as thy soul livest, I will not do 
this thing." 

While five hundred thousand of the youth of our 
land are far from home and kindred, subjected to 
malarious climes, resting on the damp earth, 
restricted to coarse food and to obey men often 
unworthy to command ; while thirty thousand more 
wasted, heart-sick, are pining in hospitals; while some 
languish half starved amid the filth, and vermin, 



12 PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 

and insults of Southern prisons, and while all our 
noble army are in the perils of war among malignant 
traitor foes ; when we think of their bitter disappoint- 
ments under defeat and disaster, their untended sick- 
beds, their pining for home, their weary marches and 
their frequent deaths from wounds, neglect and fever ; 
is there a soul here not disposed for one day to fast with 
them, and so to repent and pray that God shall give 
these suffering soldiers support and victory ? In view 
of our bleeding country, we may to-day in penitence, 
prayer and piety, hang our harps on the willows, and 
say : " If I forget my country or its defenders, let my 
right hand forget its cunning, and my tongue cleave 
to the roof of my mouth." If one member suffer, 
all the other members suffer wdth it. Abstinence for 
a single day will give us a living sympathy for our 
defenders ; who for us and their country have often 
been compelled to feel the pangs of hunger. 

(6.) Fasting is an appropriate emblem of our con- 
scious ill desert. As the ancient Hebrew, in the days 
of his humiliation, laid aside his pleasant apparel, and 
robed himself in coarse sackcloth, and put ashes on 
his head, and prostrated himself in the dust, in token 
of his guilt, his penitence, and his dependence on 
God; so it is appropriate to-da}^ for tliis nation, by 
abstinence and prayer, to humble ourselves under 
God's judgments, and say, God be merciful unto us, 
miserable offenders ! 

We have used our blessings boastingly, as if we 



PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 13 

deserved them ; we have feasted at our full tables, in 
forgetfalness of God ; we have relied on our prowess 
and strength, without God, to subdue our enemies. 
Victories have often been followed by no thanks- 
giving, and defeats have been met with atheistic 
calmness or murmuring discontent. Far from the 
personal perils and sufferings of the dreadful strife, 
we have enjoyed our home comforts, and forgotten the 
sufferings of our countrymen ; we have schemed for 
wealth with a heart-covetousness as keen as ever ; 
and some among us have not even offered a j^rayer 
for the success of our arms. 

But this day is for our reflection, our humiliation, 
and our amendment. If our children to-day see us 
intermit our noon- tide meal; if they mark the ful- 
ness of our confessions, and the fervor of our prayers, 
that God would forgive our sins and the sins of our 
people ; if our children behold this, they will have 
the evidence that our religion is a reality ; that we 
believe God governs the world ; that it is a fearful 
thing to sin against him, and that all national 
blessings are dependent on his will. 

This was the mode in which Esther and Mordecai 
befran their efforts to save their nation ; and this is 
the service to which the President of the United 
States invites ns to-day. In both cases, patriotism 
prompted piety. 

But let us accompany our fast with humiliation 
and confession of sin. 



14 PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 

It will be an alleviation of our national troubles 
and military defeats, if by them we are made better 
men and better women. We cannot govern others ; 
we are but indirectly responsible for the sins of others ; 
but to make the nation penitent and humble, indi- 
viduals must become penitent and humble. Repent- 
ing of our own personal sins, confessing them before 
God in our closets, in our families and in the sanctu- 
ary, we may hope that others will do the same, until 
this great nation lies humbled at the feet of God. Our 
great work to-day is with our own hearts and lives. 
Let us do a thorough work of personal reformation, 
that like Esther we may be prepared to go in before 
the King of kings. 

We are also to confess the sins of our people, as 
did Daniel. This admission of our national sinful- 
ness, as the just cause of our national judgments, does 
not compel us to believe that we are more guilty than 
other nations, nor that we have backslidden from the 
virtues of our fathers. Each age has its own virtues 
and crimes ; and every age has crimes to deserve God's 
judgments. " Say not that the former times were 
better than these, for thou dost not judge wisely con- 
cerning this thing." 

My impression is, that in Sabbath keeping, and at- 
tention to the means of grace, in efforts to diffuse 
universal education and the circulation of religious 
trutli, by Bibles, tracts, churches, preaching and Sun- 
day-school teaching ; in efforts to establish institutions 



PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 15 

for the aged, the imbecile, and the unfortunate ; in 
endeavors to help the sailor, the prisoner, the widow 
and the orphan, our own age and land have developed 
a piety and charity not common in the world. 

Indeed, I cannot avoid suspecting that this war is 
on our hands not because this age and people are 
worse than other times and men, but because we have 
risen to a higher principle, a holier aim, and more 
adhesive regard to justice and humanity. We held 
the price of peace in our hands. 

Our Southern brethren had a right to manage their 
own affairs in their own way, within the limits of the 
Constitution ; to take their own time and mode to 
regulate their relations to the colored race, leaving 
the Press of the land free. This right was awarded 
to them, not alone by the Constitution, but by the 
solemn declaration of the President and a resolution 
of Congress. It was endorsed by the sentiments of 
ninety-nine hundredths of the North, who, claiming 
liberty to speak and write their honest opinions of 
slavery, as did Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, 
would still have abhorred any and every attempt to 
enforce by violence their views upon the South. The 
whole North, almost before a blow was struck, pro- 
tested its respect for every Southern right. But all 
would not avail ; something more was wanting. 

If we could have consented to stultify the consci- 
entious suffrages of the great majority, as to planting 
slavery, with its fetters and manacles, on the free soil 



16 PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 

of our territories ; if we could cheerfully have agreed 
to stand as sentinels through all time, to drive the 
escaping slave back to his bondage ; if we could con- 
scientiously have commended a system which shuts 
out four millions of our fellow men, in our own land, 
from reading God's word, from lawful marriage, from 
family integrity and purity, and from the right to 
fair wages for their toil ; if we could have cherished 
at the capital the shambles where men and women 
are bought and sold, and could have heard the slave- 
dealer's lash on bleeding flesh without pity ; if we 
could have disgraced labor by contempt, and flattered 
the pride of those who grow rich on the uncompen- 
sated industry of other men ; if we could meekly have 
allowed the slave lords of the South, accustomed to 
rule over menials, whom they had by force degraded 
to their feet, to rule through all time over us, there 
would have been no luar. 

If we could have allowed our fellow citizens at the 
South to be tarred and feathered, because the}^ were 
true to their country ; if we could have permitted 
our mints, arsenals, forts and vessels to be seized, our 
Generals to be bribed to treason, and our soldiers on 
the frontiers surrendered as prisoners to those whom 
they had gone to protect ; if we could have allowed 
our country's flag to Ije trampled in the dust by 
traitors, and our garrisons to be hailed out of our own_ 
burning forts by bursting shells ; had we borne this 
submissively, there would have been no war. 



PATRIOTISM AIDING T I E T Y. 17 

But would peace in these circumstances have marked 
our virtue or our corruption ? our glory or our in- 
famy ? Our war is the proper protest of justice and 
humanity, against injustice, cruelty and perfidy. It 
is the struggle of right and philanthrojDy, against 
outrage, oppression, and bloody treason. 

We have received from ages gone by the fruits of 
man's long struggles for civil and religious liberty, 
and the right of self-government ; we have received a 
broad, beautiful and healthful country, to every foot 
of whose soil we have an equal claim as citizens ; we 
have received a civil constitution, which embraces 
the concentrated wisdom of the sasres of the Revolu- 
tion ; and we have taken up arms to declare that no 
traitor hand shall cut the telegraphic wire on which 
these blessings are passing down to other generations. 
The cry of humanity, from ages to come, has called 
us to this bloody strife. It is simply a defence of our 
own institutions. 

In such a contest we are not to interpret any defeats 
into an impeachment of our national virtue, or our 
cause ; but rather regard them as a moral discipline 
through which God purifies us from remaining cor- 
ruptions, to make us "perfect" for our high national 
mission, "through sufferings." 

The war has certainly unveiled an appalling amount 
of individual selfishness, covetousness, fraud, cow- 
ardice and j)erfidy. But it has also shown in our 
people a pure, unselfish patriotism, developed in the 
2 



18 PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 

pecuniary Scacrifices of the rich and jDOor; in the 
devotion of their lives by hundreds of thousands of 
our young men ; in the rich, unfaihng charities, espe- 
cially of our ladies, for the suffering soldiers ; in the 
patient suffering of our martyrs in the hospital or on 
the battle field. War has ennobled as well as tried us; 
and I must thank God to-day for the grace he has 
given you, as well as exhort you to be penitent for 
j^our sins. 

While I say this, I still believe that our sufferings 
are made hecessary by our sins, and that the nearer 
we approach to holiness, the fewer will be our dis- 
asters and the more certain our triumphs. 

When we have "learned righteousness" from the 
judgments of God, we may expect Divine judgments 
to be removed, for he does not " afflict willingly." 
Besides, this universal penitence and reformation 
would impart purity to our motives and efficacy to 
our prayers. A nation imbued with the spirit of 
piety, justice and magnanimity, combined as these 
graces always are with courage and united earnestness, 
would be irresistible. It would be pre]^)ared to subdue 
its enemies by the jDower of its virtues as well as the 
force of its arms. " When a man's ways please the 
Lord, he makcth even his enemies to be at peace with 
him." If, with the spirit of holiness, we go forth to 
vindicate law, order and justice, we shall so strike the 
consciences of rebels, that it will be hardly necessary 
to smite with the sword of the Maa'istrate. 



PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 19 

What our personal sins are, we best know ourselves. 
" If T regard iniquity in my heart," says David, 
" the Lord will not hear." How sad for us if in- 
dulged sin bars from Heaven's throne our cries for 
National deliverance ! Our skepticism and cavilling; 
our religious apathy ; our neglect of prayer, Bible 
reading and the sanctuary ; our covetousness, pride, 
evil speaking and unkindness ; our worldliness and 
ambition ; our cold formality and frequent insincerity 
in devotion ; of all this we should repent to-day. 

The weapons of the soldier to be effective must be 
kept clean. So if our praj-ers avail to bring God 
widi us into this conflict, and that is what we most 
need, we must be pure in heart and life. What a 
motive is thus furnished to those who have flxthers, 
sons, or brothers in the camp, to so prepare to go into 
the presence of God that he shall give these fathers, 
sons and brothers victory in the day of battle ! We 
have a work then to accomplish to-day. We are to 
triumph over sin in ourselves, so that our prayers 
shall give our soldiers triumph over our foes. We 
must gain a victory to give them victory. 

We have also national sins to bewail to-day. Some 
of these are obvious, and universally admitted. 

Ingratitude, Sabbath-breaking, profanity, intemper- 
ance, gambling, under-mining and over-reaching self- 
ishness, fraud and lying ; lack of parental fidelity, and 
of respect for parents and for age ; stinted charities, 
and prayerless and Godless lives ; who doubts that all 



20 PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 

these cry to heaven for judgment against us ? No 
wonder God is discipUning us by national disasters. 
Our defeats and dehays will be blessed, if they lead us 
to put away all these sins. We have been scourged 
into sober reflection. May this reflection lead to na- 
tional reformation. 

But have we not other sins as a nation, not so often 
seen or lamented ? Our boasting pride in our eighty 
years of prosperity, our contempt of other nations, our 
bitter and unfraternal spirit in the long past towards 
the sins of Southern brethren, when a better temper 
might have saved them; our cherished hatred and con- 
tempt of our colored brethren, manifested in endorsing 
their bondage at the South, and their persecutions in 
the North; the cold selfishness of a party spirit, willing 
to sacrifice nationality and freedom for party tri- 
umph ; our public men hypocritically jDrofessing pa- 
triotism, as an avenue to the salaries of office, or to 
gainful contracts ; rank bribery shamelessly prac- 
ticed in our halls of legislation ; our highest Judicial 
Tribunal, for party ends, taking away the shield of 
law from a feeble race among us ; men of influence 
coldly standing by, and from party motives, allowing 
traitors of the South to plot and begin treasonable 
operations in the Capitol itself; clergymen, back- 
sliding from all the teachings of their fathers and of 
the church, justifying chattel slavery by the word of 
God, and encouraging their fellow citizens, for the 
interest of slavery, to make war on the Government 



PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 21 

of their country ; clergymen in the North endorsing 
this apostcicy and rebellion in the South, apologizing 
for traitors and the treason, which has filled our land 
with blood, abasing their own Government, and re- 
fusing even to pray for the success of our soldiers and 
sailors, as under their lawful chief magistrate they 
" bear the sword against evil doers." And in this hour 
of the nation's peril, how many are coldly indifferent, 
or carping fault-finders ; how many are using the 
patriotic sacrifices of the nation, to feed party preju- 
dice, or to fill their pockets ! If this day of fasting 
softens such hearts, humbles us, and purifies us, it 
will also ennoble us, and make us mighty in renewed 
virtue and in the blessing of almighty God. 

Mordecai and Esther combined in prayer and fast- 
ing as a preparation for salvation. Oh, that all 
dwellers in our land, of every creed and party clique, 
in church and state, could unite in common penitence 
to day ! This would give to all a hoh'', patriotic unity 
of purpose and action, before which treason would 
pale, and on which would rest the smile of God's 
countenance. 

« But Mordecai refused to exalt any instrument 
above a covenant-keeping God. He knew Esther's 
influential position and fitness for the work, but he 
boldly tells her if she failed to act, the cause would 
still triumph. " If thou at this time shall altogether 
hold thy peace, then shall enlargement and deliver- 
ance arise to the Jews from another place^' To 



22 PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 

Esther was given the noble privilege of saving her 
people. Bat the God of Abraham and Isaac and 
Jacob had not suspended his grand purposes of good 
to Israel, on the will or patriotism of a frail woman 
like Esther. If she proved selfish, or timid, or 
treacherous, God would raise up other and better 
afjrencies, and Israel should have deliverance. 

So in our imperilled country, I do not believe that 
its ultimate unity, peace, safety and freedom are 
given up to the final keeping of any one man, how- 
ever lofty, nor any clique or party of men. Our 
country needs all; but if those who ought by interest, 
sacrifice and j)^'ayer to come to its rescue, coldly 
stand aloof to see their country perish, they will be 
disappointed. They will not see it die. They, 
themselves, will go to their dishonored graves, and 
their memory will be hissed by other generations ; 
but their country, saved by better men, will rise 
beautified by its trial and blessed of God and man. 
Of this I have not a doubt. 

There are causes mightier than men, on which we 
may rely for national salvation. The chain of God's 
Holy Providence, with its ten thousand links of mar-» 
velous carre and mercy, which has reached down to us 
through nearly three centuries, is not to be broken by 
the first blow of treason. God did not lead Israel 
out of Egypt to perish in the wilderness. By the 
range of our mountains and valleys, by the course of 
our miglity rivers, hy the necessities of our commerce, 



PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 23 

by our common origin, language, and religion ; by 
the prayers and martyrdoms of our common ancestry ; 
by our common historic recollections and general 
literature ; by the recorded counsels of our sages, like 
Washington, Madison and Jackson ; by our long che- 
rished complacency and hopes, as citizens of this great 
country ; by the voice of twenty millions of freemen, 
and, as I believe, by his own holy purpose, God has 
spoken the unity of these States; and " what God has 
thus joined, no man nor clique of men can put 
asunder." 

Local jealousies, state pride, peculiar institutions, 
conflicting opinions, party strifes, personal rivalship 
and ambition, mutual recrimination, foreign intrigues, 
may be so skilfully used hy demagogues, south and 
north, as to produce a temporary separation ; but, as 
the waters divided by a central rock in the stream, 
must obey the general laws of gravitation and unite 
below the obstruction, so the people of these United 
States, in spite of the present conflict, will finall}^ 
jdeld their caprices to their necessities, under the 
great law of their geographical position and the con- 
straint of Divine providence. A peace with secession, 
is, in my estimate, an impossibility. If such a peace 
were patched up to-day, it would be temporarj^, lead- 
ing to new intrigues, and repeated and bloody wars. 
Whether twenty millions or six shall govern this 
continent, or whether the whole people or an oligar- 
chy shall rule it, are questions which our posterity 
will not leave open. 



24 PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 

Again, when we look at the deep ground-swell of 
human sentiment in favor of liberty throughout the 
earth, at the hopes which our example has inspired, 
at the prayers which are offered for us by earnest 
Christians in all lands, and at the beau ideal of bless- 
ings so fxmiliar to our twenty millions by past ex- 
perience, we see how improbable it is that freedom 
here can fail. 

In this struggle of government against treason, of 
order against anarchy, of universal education against 
ignorance, of civilization against semi-barbarism, 
of liberty against despotism, of true and noble men 
against conspirators ; it would be an atheistic im- 
peachment of God's justice, to assume that he will by 
miracles oppose us ; and unless he does thus interfere 
against us, his ordinary blessing, for which we hope, 
will be our salvation. He may discipline us by 
defeats, he may try us by delays, but what he has 
done for us in the past is the pledge of our final suc- 
cess. 

It would also be an impeachment, not only of 
God's justice, but of the manhood, the patriotism, the 
virtue of this nation, to assume that we can ftiil in this 
contest. With Northern health and energy, with 
abundant wealth, with mechanical skill and resources, 
with the prestige and authority of the Government 
and our national flag, with the military and naval 
schools, with the armories, the entire nav}', and 
the fortresses, with six hundred thousand men in the 
field, and the gathered military experience of two ful 



PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 25 

years, it is absurd to suppose that twenty millions of 
loyal people are not able, with God's blessing, to 
subdue six millions of rebels against their country. 
It is onl}' to resolve it shall be done and it will be 
accomplished. 

I am not willing to assume, that however earnest 
and bitter may be the zeal of their political discussions, 
or the violence of their antipathy to men or measures, 
that any considerable party of northern men are so 
besotted and craven, so selfishly near-sighted and sui- 
cidal, as to consent for any reason or at any time to 
the ruin of their country. Individuals there may be 
who, by jeering at our defeats, parading the horrors 
of battle-fields, lampooning our generals and chilling 
the courage and patriotism of our young men, may do 
much mischief; but I am not willing to believe that 
they represent any party. I choose rather to believe 
that our distinguished fellow citizen, G. M. Dallas, 
who publicly pledged " the last dollar in every purse, 
and the last drop of blood in every heart," to the 
country's salvation, represented the final spirit of our 
twenty millions. If so, our success is merely a ques- 
tion of time. 

It would also be an impeachment of recent his- 
tory to assume our fiiilure. In spite of the beggared 
treasury, the divided counsels, the total inexperience, 
the want of men and arms, the treason of our pub- 
lic men and military officers at the beginning of the 
conflict ; in spite of the difficulties of operating on an 
unheard-of scale in an enemy's country, and against 



26 PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 

foes intelligent, l3rave as ourselves, and more practised 
in arms and familiar with violence ; in spite of all 
this, in two years, the rebellion has been, by God's 
aid, driven from Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri; 
from a considerable portion of Yirginia, North Caro- 
lina, Tennessee, and Louisiana; from New Mexico, 
and the Cherokee Country, and from parts of Florida, 
and South Carolina. With the exception of some few 
cities, rebellion has been exiled from our entire coast. 
All this in two years. In the same proportion, less 
than the seven years given to our Revolution, will 
plant the stars and stripes on every foot of the soil of 
our country. 

Had our success been constant, and our triumph 
early and complete, we should have lost the sifting 
IDrocess, by which pretension has been rebuked, and 
zeal, patriotism and worth elevated ; and by which 
we better know ourselves, and the motives and value 
of our would-be great men. By the disasters and 
horrors of war, God has rebuked the selfish cbivahy 
which would make bloodshed a pastime ; and has thus 
by war, given us lessons likely to promote in our pos- 
terity the spirit of peace. 

We went into the war proudl}^, with unschooled 
sectional ambition; and God has, by defeats, humbled 
us, and I trust purified us. Bat his mercy has not 
fliiled us. We have not realized all our hopes, but God 
has enabled us in two years past to raise more sol- 
diers for their country, provide more arms and arma- 
ments, build more vessels, collect more money, fight 



PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 27 

more battles, gain more victories, and conquer more 
territory, than was ever before clone by any nation 
since the world beo-an. We have not aained all we 
desired, bat more than we deserved ; and while we 
humble ourselves, we thank God for his rich mercy, 
to-day. 

If some Esthers among us, from whom we had 
hoped better things, have " altogether held their 
peace," from prayer for our success, or from labors 
for their country, God has raised up enlargement and 
deliverance from another place. So it will be. If 
God's people, like Mordecai, in penitence, fixst, pray 
and labor; the flilse, or silent, or cavilling Esthers, 
will destroy, not their country, but themselves. They, 
and " their fathers' house," under the stain of their 
infamy, will, like Benedict Arnold, 

" Go do-wD, 
To the vile dust from -wlience they sprung, 
Unwept, unhonored and unsung." 

From what I have said, you will infer mj^ deep 
conviction, that the battle for our country's life is, in 
its controlling causes, to be fought at the North 
rather than in the South. Traitors at the South can- 
not destroy this Government, if they be not aided by 
traitors in the North. A Northern citizen crying 
" peace!" with rebels armed and eager to dismember 
their country, betrays the nation's honor; palsies en- 
ero-y, b}^ exciting doubts as to our success; weakens the 
moral tone of the soldier ; takes from him his motive 



28 PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 

to dare and his consolation under disaster, by imply- 
ing that his cause is weak, and not adequate to justify 
his martyrdom ; that no honor will welcome him 
home, and no pension sustain his age or his wounds. 
The Northern traitor also impairs the pecuniary credit 
of his country, and strengthens that of the rebels ; 
and while he withholds from the Government the aid 
to conquer, he at the same time prolongs bloodshed, 
by encouraging rebels to hold out against the Govern- 
ment. 

Such modern Esthers, refusing to speak for their 
country in its peril, are very unlike the daughter of 
Mordecai. Prepared by fasting and prayer that God 
might attend her, she says : If I am to perish, I Avill 
not die a traitress to my f)eople : " / tvill go in before 
the king, and if I perish, I perish!'' Noble woman ! 
she j)e riled all and gained all. She gave herself to 
duty, and God has given her a name to be undying 
on earth, and blessed in Heaven. 

Let us follow her noble example, and go for our 
country into the presence of the God of nations, 
to-day. The object of this day as a national fost is 
this : to give us such a spiritual reformation, such 
access to God and power with ITim, that He will 
hear oar prayer for victory over our enemies and 
restore an honorable peace. He who never prays, 
he whose sins prevent answers to prayer, and he 
whose perverted conscience will not allow him to pray 
for the success of our arms, have little interest in the 
object of the day. Patriotism to-day aids our piety. 



PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 29 

by asking us so to purify ourselves that by our 
prayers we can secure for our Government and our 
armies God's providential favor. He wlio believes 
his prayers are efhcacious, and yet refuses to give 
them to our armies in the field, voluntarily withholds 
his aid from his Government, and abets treason. The 
soldier might as well refuse to discharge his musket, 
or the quartermaster to distribute to the starving 
soldier his daily rations. Such should remember that 
fearful text from which President Samuel Davis^ of 
Princeton, preached an eloquent sermon in the 
French war : " Curse ye, Meroz, said the angel of the 
Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because 
they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the 
Lord against the mighty." 

While we pray for Divine aid to subdue rebellion, 
it is not necessary to cherish any malignant or un- 
christian emotions towards the j)ersons of rebels. As 
God abhorred and punished rebellion in Heaven with- 
out malevolence, we may imitate his holy example, 
towards rebels against rightful authority on earth. 
Treason is the chief of crimes, because it removes the 
guardianship of law, lets loose the worst passions, 
and thus generates all crimes. The wasted treasure 
and time, the alienated families, the moral evils, the 
hardships of the soldier in the camp, the wan faces of 
fifty thousand hospital inmates, the torn limbs of the 
battle field, the hundred of thousands of dying vic- 
tims, the wail of broken-hearted widows and helpless 



30 PATRIOTISM AIDING T I E T Y. 

orphans, all these are accounted for by one word — 
Treason. For all these, the rebels in our land are re- 
sponsible to God and their country. Still we are not 
to cherish towards them a spirit of revenge. There is 
danger of this, as there is when a parent or teacher 
punishes a rebellious child, or whea the police moves 
against a murderous mob. We are "to be angry and 
sin not." This is possible. If Jesus looked on the 
wicked " with indignation ;" if he endorsed the good 
man's not suffering his house to be broken through by 
thieves ; if he himself made a scourge of small cords, 
and by violence drove out the polluters of the Temple; 
then our indiufnation a2;ainst rebellion, and our honest 
efforts to punish treason and traitors, so far from being 
inconsistent with the spirit of Jesus, may be, and I 
believe is, the demand of Christianity upon us. Hold- 
ing in our eye one great aim, the support of lawful 
authority ; designing no iujury to rebels themselves 
not needful to this end, and praying for their re^Dent- 
ance, submission and forgiveness, we may invite God 
to interfere for us, as he did for David in the rebellion 
of Absalom. 

By how much our enemies are numerous, wary 
and cruel ; by how much we have met defeat and 
disaster in the past ; by the many thousands of our 
brave men who have fallen martyrs in the hospital 
and on the battle-field ; by the half million of our 
soldiers now in peril and exposure for us; by the 
millions of treasure we have invested, and by the 



PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 31 

national life which hangs on the conflict, we are urged 
to-day to the altar of prayer. I may add, by how 
much our rulers are regarded as imperfect and having 
made mistakes in the past ; by how much other men 
have proved mercenary, hypocritical, timid, or trea- 
cherous ; by how much difficulties hang over success, 
tempting craven hearts to shrink from the conflict ; 
by how much traitors scheme and partisans murmur, 
by so much are we urged, like Esther, to peril life, if 
need be, for our nation ; and especially to go for it 
into the presence of heaven's King. 

If it be the duty of our cherished sons, of the sixty 
young men of this congregation, to peril health and life 
for their country; it is our duty, for their encouragement 
and solace, to assure them of our approbation of their 
noble cause and patriotic motives ; to pledge them our 
sympathy in all their suffering, and our earnest, daily 
prayers for their success. If the cause be worth their 
martyrdom, it is certainly worthy of our prayers. 
God forbid that I should entrust our young men to 
the perils of the field, and not bless them daily in the 
name of the Lord. 

Esther, unbidden, and against law, went to Ahasu- 
erus. We approach the throne of Heaven by duty 
and invitation. Esther went timidly and alone ; we 
can by millions "come boldly to> a throne of grace 
for help in our time of need." We have a great cause, 
but a greater God. We bring the interests of a con- 
tinent, with the welfare of its future hundreds of 



32 PATRIOTISM AIDING PIETY. 

millions ; we bring the safety of our civil govern- 
ment; we bring the great cause of humanity at large; 
all of freedom that earth has gained in six thousand 
years ; we bring the lives of our noble soldiers and 
sailors, and the cause for which they are contending ; 
we bring the interests of Christianity itself, which 
alone in this free land has found impartial liberty of 
conscience and of worship ; we bring all these to the 
altar, and say: " God, have mercy upon us, and vin- 
dicate our cause from those who have risen up against 
us !" When he thus appears, we may say: "The Lord 
of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge." 

This nation, fearing God, has nothing else to fear. 
If He stretch out to us the sceptre of mercy, Hamans 
South or North conspire in vain. My brethren, let 
us so improve the day that the nation shall not perish 
as a judgment for our crimes, nor from lack of our 
prayers. 

We live in an hour on which the destin}^ of ages is 
turning. We are touching springs which will vibrate 
on the weal or woe of far distant generations. Let us 
meet it, on the field if need be, with courage; and in 
our closets with prayer to the God of nations and 
armies. With penitent hearts, amended lives, and 
confiding faith, we shall be allowed in all circum- 
stances to say : " God is our refuge and strength, a 
very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not 
fear thou2;h the earth be removed, and thouirh the 
mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



iiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiililll 

012 028 963 9^ 



